Sens. Smith & Jennings
Perhaps the most intriguing question of Legislative Session 2010 is whether Dem conservatives in the state Senate will play hardball over spending cuts, but in the final days agree that some form of tax increases are needed to balance the extremely out of balance state budget. (Up to a total $1 billion shortfall for the budget year we are in and the one that starts in July.)

Senate Finance Committee Chairman John "Dr. No" Smith has been talking tough against most tax measures as has Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings. But chopping perhaps more than $600 million from the budget for the year that starts July 1st may unleash political forces the two legislative heavyweights may not anticipate.

A blend of major cuts and the $200 million in tax hikes proposed by the Guv and key legislators seems a moderate road to follow. Smith earlier talked sympathetically of raising the gross receipts tax on food, but that's not going anywhere. So will he look elsewhere?

Are Smith and Jennings holding back on supporting any tax increases because they fear they would lose leverage in getting needed spending cuts? Maybe. But if they get the cuts they want, do they then bend and agree to some kind of "revenue enhancement?" How the tax card is played in the Senate will be one of the most anticipated poker hands of the next 30 days.

Have we and others been too optimistic that the tax deal will be an easier part of the legislative equation than the spending cuts? Or are both going to be cause for deadlock and a dreaded special session?

THE GUV

Big Bill will deliver his final state of the state address early this afternoon as the session formally gets underway. You can see it live starting around 1 p.m. on KNME-TV or KOB-TV or watch it streamed on the KOB Web site. Bill says it will be his shortest opening day speech ever. Who wants to talk about bad news for an hour?

Richardson has gone through seven legislative sessions during fat times and has much to show for it, but this session could be the one that most defines his legacy. The economic decline is simply too big to be just be a blip in the history books. Can this Governor collaborate more and dictate less to get the deals that will right the state's listing economic ship?

KOB-TV reported on their interview with Bill on the eve of the session:

The governor stressed one of his legacies is tax cuts during less difficult times .

"Well, you're looking at Bill Richardson, the tax cutter. I've cut a billion dollars in taxes for New Mexicans in my seven years. One billion dollars."

And those tax cuts were quite justifiable when the state was toting up surpluses that are nearly equal to the deficits we now face. Heck, we even argued for larger rebate checks in some of the boom years. But Richardson's critics now say he has been imperiously inflexible in recognizing the new reality in which government is starved for revenue and faces a tax code that has clearly favored the well-off at the expense of the middle classes.

Richardson cant freeze-frame where history judges his legacy. His billion dollars in tax cuts were of their time, now times have changed. Bill's insistence on not rolling back even one iota the 2003 tax cuts for the rich and also not touching even one of the many questionable tax credits on the books threatens to make him look more like a relic of the Clinton 90's than a trend setting leader of the 21st century.

GOOD BILL

He may have work to do to protect his economic legacy, but the chief executive continues to secure his place in history as one of the nation's leading advocates for human rights. He will again push for domestic partner legislation. If he didn't, most supporters would understand because of the budget crisis, but Big Bill will push ahead despite the Senate repeatedly shutting him out on this one.

The Guv can also take credit for the surprisingly few allegations of civil rights violations we have heard coming out of the state corrections system (knock on wood) and for addressing the Hispanic achievement gap in education.

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